Southampton make the trip to Sunderland on Saturday looking to extend their unbeaten start to the Championship to five matches.
At a time when the Saints occupy fourth spot in the standings, the home side are down in 18th position, albeit having avoided defeat in their last two league fixtures.
Upon reaching last season’s playoff semi-finals, Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray would have expected another promotion-challenging campaign from his side this time around.
As it stands, that may not be the case, the Black Cats having to respond to beginning the campaign with successive defeats to claw their way back up to 18th place.
However, a comeback victory against Rotherham United and a goalless draw away at Coventry City can only have lifted the mood at the Stadium of Light.
With Coventry hinting in recent weeks that they are rediscovering their high level from 2022-23, keeping their first clean sheet of the season away at the Midlands outfit can only add belief to this Sunderland squad.
Nevertheless, another difficult fixture in Southampton awaits, and Mowbray will be aware that his players have to continue to step up if they want to match the recently-relegated Premier League side.
Southampton have been far from convincing since dropping into the second tier, never winning by more than one goal and conceding seven times in just four league games.
That said, Russell Martin’s team have still accumulated 10 points from a possible 12, prevailing by a 2-1 scoreline on three occasions and twice away from St Mary’s.
A habit has been made of scoring late goals, although the decisive strike in the victory over Queens Park Rangers last time out came in the 64th minute.
Martin will hope that shutouts are forthcoming with Southampton yet to reach the level of the likes of Leicester City, yet priority will naturally be placed on achieving as many points as possible during what remains a transitional period for the South-coast outfit.
Barring any fitness issues, Mowbray may be prepared to select the same Sunderland XI, using Jobe Bellingham in a central-attacking role.
If a change is made, it may see Alex Pritchard return to the team in place of Bradley Dack, with Luis Semedo remaining among the replacements.
Patrick Roberts is unlikely to recover from a hamstring injury in time to take his spot in the squad.
With Jack Stephens suffering an injury last weekend that will likely keep him out in the long term, Mason Holgate should make his debut in the Southampton defence.
Ryan Fraser also seems likely to replace Samuel Amo-Ameyaw on the flank, while Flynn Downes will be considered for a start in central midfield.
Sunderland possible starting lineup:
Patterson; Hume, O’Nien, Ballard, Cirkin; Neil, Ekwah; Ba, Dack, Clarke; Bellingham
Southampton possible starting lineup:
Bazunu; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Holgate, Manning; Alcaraz, Charles, S.Armstrong; Fraser, A.Armstrong, Edozie
We say: Sunderland 1-2 Southampton
With Sunderland seemingly growing in confidence, this could prove to be a more competitive game than the table would have you believe. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore Southampton’s ability to score and to score late, leading us to back a narrow victory for the visitors.
